The Compendium of Kāśyapa 8.14

Now begins the fourteenth chapter, "Treatment of Erysipelas". / Now, therefore, we shall explain the treatment of erysipelas.

Thus spoke the venerable Kaśyapa.

Vṛddhajīvaka questioned Kaśyapa, foremost among physicians, / whose radiance was like that of the sun, seated having offered the agnihotra:

"O venerable one, an illness is seen, circular in form, burning up / the skin, blood, and flesh, resembling the venom of a poisonous snake,

unbearable to delicate people, especially children, / of terrible appearance, equal in brilliance to a blazing fire.

You ought to tell, O great sage, according to truth, / its origin, clinical signs, and treatment, out of a desire for the welfare of children."

Thus questioned by his pupil, the great sage spoke this:
"From the anger towards Dakṣa felt by the venerable Rudra of immeasurable splendour,

from the lip of him who bit down on his lips, whatever blood fell to the earth, / from that arose the red-bodied erysipelas, resembling fire.

Therefore these two cause intense burning and bring severe distress to men; / and it is called erysipelas (vaisarpa) because it creeps (sarpaṇa) diversely in the body.

From trauma, fracture, crushing, injury while raw, suppression of urges, / and excessive consumption of curd, sour curd-water, unfermented liquor, vinegar, and fermented grain-wash;

from excessive consumption of sesame, black gram, and horse gram, onion and garlic, / and the meat of domestic, marshland, and aquatic animals;

from eating incompatible, heavy, channel-blocking, foul-smelling, and stale food, / from sleeping during the day, from indigestion, and from taking leafy vegetables and flour-based dishes;

and from exposure to wind, water, clothing, food, and drink afflicted by poison — / through these and other such factors, the vāta and other humours of an infant are deranged

and swiftly produce erysipelas by severely vitiating blood and the other [tissues]. / Likewise, when milk vitiated by the aggravated humours

is consumed, erysipelas arises in him due to that humour. / The types are born of vāta, pitta, and kapha, three born from pairs of humours,

and from a combination of all three; thus seven types of erysipelas are declared. / Erysipelas is never produced without blood and pitta;

it resides in blood and originates from blood, and pitta is situated in blood. / Therefore, bloodletting is declared to be the foremost medicament here,

having regard for strength, season, age, humour, habitat, and physical constitution. / Hereafter, I shall explain the characteristics in proper succession.

When wind is aggravated by the previously mentioned causes, / swiftly vitiating blood and the other [tissues], erysipelas […]

[…] gout, fever […] and blisters, he should not […]

For those whose bodies are purified above and below, when the waste material resides in the external pathway,

and from the beginning for those whose humours are minor, the physician should perform this treatment:

Having administered fasting according to the proper time, he should treat with decoctions,

with poultices, with affusions, with unctuous substances, and with inunctions;

with bloodlettings, with wholesome regimens, and with the administration of drinks, foods, and medicines.

First, for one afflicted with vāta-erysipelas, especially according to the secondary humour,

one should administer old, very old, or vessel-aged medicated ghee to drink;

and oil with salt is quickly beneficial for his inunction.

Cooked with sour fermented gruel, surā liquor, or balā,

and with a paste of licorice and fresh juice of guḍūcī,

one should cook oil with an equal part of milk; that is beneficial for his inunction.

Balā, rāsnā, both types of bṛhatī, varcīva along with punarnavā,

pāṭalā, suṣavī, licorice, and Himalayan cedar —

having ground these, oil cooked with curd is beneficial for inunction.

With bilva, agnimantha, kāśmarya, śyonāka, castor, and pāṭalā,

boiled with milk or water, one should perform affusion.

With roasted, draught-free linseed, sesame, and mustard in milk,

or ground with milk, one should apply a plaster to the one afflicted with vāta-erysipelas.

Suṣavī, surabhī, rāsnā, varcīva along with punarnavā,

ekāṣṭhīlā, palāśa, and Himalayan cedar one should grind,

with water or sour liquid; unctuous and warm, one should apply it as a plaster.

With tilvaka, trivṛt, or nīlinī, individually,

or cooked with all of them together, one should administer clarified butter to drink as a purgative.

When the wind does not attain pacification by these treatments,

after being well inuncted, one should foment him with cloths or with veśavāra meat preparation,

with those unctuous substances that have been mentioned, with milk puddings, or with kṛsarā rice-and-pulse gruel;

or with pastes of dried radish, or pastes of drumstick,

pleasantly warm, one should plaster him, or follow a procedure that is not overly hot.

When wind is pacified by sudations, pitta may become aggravated like fire;

so that pitta is not aggravated and vāyu is pacified,

thus should the physician apply treatment that eliminates vāta and pitta.

In a pitta condition, the bitter clarified butter stated in the treatment of fever,

free from āma, the physician should make him drink; knowing he is unctuated, he should purge him.

Sandalwood, padmaka, vetiver, and red sandalwood and sārivā,

raisin, vidārī, kāśmarya fruits, and parūṣaka —

boiled with vāsā, he should drink this, which destroys erysipelas and fever.

Vetiver, licorice, grape, kāśmarya fruits, and blue water-lilies,

scirpus tuber, pieces of sugar cane, and parūṣaka fruits —

these are to be drunk according to the previous recipe for the alleviation of fever and erysipelas.

Kirātatikta, licorice, lodhra, sandalwood along with bibhītaka,

lotus, blue water-lily, ironwood flowers, dry ginger along with durālabhā — / having boiled and cooled this, it should be drunk with honey for the alleviation of erysipelas.

Pointed gourd, sandalwood, mūrvā, guḍūcī, kaṭurohiṇī,

mustā, pāṭhā, along with licorice, one should cook according to the previous recipe.

Aragvadha, both turmerics, kurchi bark, kaṭurohiṇī,

guḍūcī, licorice, and sandalwood: that one should drink.

Neem, pointed gourd, tree turmeric, and kaṭukarohiṇī,

guḍūcī, licorice, and sandalwood: that one should drink.

Neem, pointed gourd, tree turmeric, and kaṭukarohiṇī,

[and] trāyamāṇā with liquorice, to alleviate erysipelas.

Or of paṭola, neem, and mustā, and also of sandalwood and uśīra;

or again of mustaka, āmalaka, uśīra, and sārivā;

one should administer a decoction as a drink to alleviate pitta-erysipelas.

Or he should drink a decoction of paṭola, mustā, and āmalaka with clarified butter.

The bark of udumbara, liquorice, priyaṅgu, and nāgakeśara,

and the filaments of lotus and blue water-lily, applied warm as a poultice with clarified butter, is beneficial.

With the barks of aśvattha, udumbara, plakṣa, vaṭa, vetasa, and jambu,

finely ground and saturated with hundred-times-washed ghee, an unguent [is prepared].

Equal parts of the barks of śakubha, udumbara, aśvattha, vaṭa, and lodhra,

and the bark of vetasa along with lotus root […] one should grind.

This application mixed with clarified butter removes burning sensation and redness.

Uśīra, sandalwood, fresh grass, conch shell, blue water-lily,

and roots of vetasa, mixed with rice, should be a poultice.

Hrībera, sandalwood, uśīra, Indian madder, white water-lily, blue water-lily,

sārivā, and lotus filaments make an unsurpassed ointment.

Vidārī, sandalwood, uśīra, as well as candanasārivā,

liquorice, and kṣīraśuklā: the physician should apply these as an unguent.

Tālīśa, padmaka, uśīra, Indian madder, the two sandalwoods,

prapauṇḍarīka, and liquorice: this application destroys burning sensation.

And with pastes of pearl, conch shell, oyster shell, crystal, and red ochre,

mixed with clarified butter, one should cover him with all of these or whatever is obtained.

Roots of plantain, kuśa, and kāśa, and likewise of naḍa and reed;

sandalwood, uśīra, padmaka, ṛṣabhaka, and jīvaka;

leaves of white water-lily and blue water-lily, mūrvā, and white water-lily;

lotus stalk, lotus root, lotus tuber, tṛṇaśūla, and ikṣuvālikā;

prapauṇḍarīka, liquorice, tālīśa, and water chestnut;

roots of sugarcane and vetasa, sānantā, barks of the latex-bearing trees,

śatāvarī, Indian madder, and kumbhīkā: he should collect these.

Crushing these, the wise physician should soak them in water overnight.

Then, straining that liquid, he should administer an affusion.

Or he should boil medicated ghee with these and with milk as an anointing salve.

With this very decoction, the physician should cook an equal amount of milk;

and when a fourth part remains, he should churn it thoroughly with a churning stick.

The clarified butter produced therein, again cooked with eight times the amount of milk,

along with pastes of payasyā, liquorice, and sandalwood,

he should administer for massage, food, and drink, as a destroyer of erysipelas.

[A child] sprinkled with clarified butter […]

With liquorice water, with milk, or with sugarcane juice,

or with the cold decoction of the bark of vaṭa and others, he should shower [the body].

Or he should apply a poultice made with the paste of vaṭa and others mixed with clarified butter;

likewise with thousand-times-washed or hundred-times-washed

clarified butter, or with that extracted from fresh milk, he should cover him when there is burning sensation.

When a swelling accompanied by burning sensation, redness, and suppuration is spreading,

one should draw blood using leeches in those whose bodies have been internally purified.

Having drained the vitiated blood, he should bring about blood purification

with pastes of the latex-bearing trees mixed with clarified butter, or with the aforesaid cooling [medicaments].

At the outset, in kapha-erysipelas, one should administer emesis;

or fasting for those with mild humours; after that, he should perform this treatment:

Mustā, pāṭhā, the two turmerics, kuṣṭha, tejovatī, sweet flag,

śārṅgiṣṭhā, triphalā, mūrvā, leadwort, and haimavatī,

vatsaka, ativiṣā, and kaṭukarohiṇī:

boiling them down, he should make him drink [the decoction], and should apply them ground as an ointment.

Āragvadha, somavalka, kuṭaja, ativiṣā, mustā,

pāṭhā, mūrvā, śārṅgiṣṭhā, and kuṣṭha the physician should decoct.

He should drink that decoction at the proper time and apply them finely ground as an unguent.

By that, his itching, urticarial eruptions, and swelling are quickly pacified.

Or a decoction made from amṛtā, ginger, parpaṭa, along with durālabhā,

the one afflicted by erysipelas and fever should drink with honey.

Triphalā, uśīra, mustā, castor, and devadāru,

having decocted [them], he should be sprinkled, or with water prepared with neem leaves,

with bark of drumstick, holy basil, āsphoṭā, kālamāla, and phaṇijjaka,

together with vāsā; he should administer sprinkling with the boiled water,

or sprinkling with khadira-water, or with cow's urine, is beneficial.

Soot, the two kinds of turmeric, and tender leaves of royal jasmine,

the two kinds of turmeric, false black pepper, long pepper, and earthworm castings,

nutgrass, guḍūcī, the two kinds of turmeric, trichosanthes, and tender neem leaves,

kuṭaja, ativiṣā, nutgrass, and kuṣṭha: he should grind these,

as well as soot, turmeric, and rock salt, as a plaster.

These formulations, set forth in half-verses, combined with a little clarified butter,

should be applied as thick pastes; they remove swelling, itching, and pain.

Saptaparṇa with khadira, nutgrass, and bark of āragvadha,

kuraṇṭaka, and devadāru make an unsurpassed plaster.

And palāśa ash mixed with cow's urine is an application for a single limb.

Mustard oil with alkali or with rock salt,

or karañja oil, should be employed for anointing,

or rubbing [the body] of one smeared with oil with powder of kuṣṭha and rock salt.

With svarjikā alkali, ativiṣā, nutgrass, cinnamon bark, cardamom, elavālu, and indrayava,

dill, agallochum, and kuṣṭha ground together, one should cook oil;

that should be used for his inunction; it destroys itching, urticaria, and superficial boils.

Having ground drumstick root and ahiṃsrā, one should cook clarified butter;

with that one should anoint his body, or again with kuṣṭha-oil.

If by this procedure the disease does not subside,

and the burning patches continue to burn with itching,

then one should administer purgation and draw his blood.

When the vitiated blood has been removed, one should perform blood clarification

with triphalā pastes together with clarified butter, accompanied by licorice and cluster fig.

Thus the treatment of erysipelas conditions born of vāta and the rest has been described to you,

through summary and detailed formulations and individually.

And one should employ this same combined [treatment] in combined [affections].

Barley food, śāli rice, mung beans, lentils, along with peas,

aged ones, should be used for eating, as well as meat of wild mammals and birds.

Smallpox with eruptions, shingles, and likewise scabies,

arising from combined pitta and blood, he should treat like erysipelas.

Thus spoke the venerable Kaśyapa.
Thus ends the fourteenth chapter, 'Treatment of Erysipelas', in the Supplementary Section of the Bhārgavīya Saṃhitā.